Remembering Rusty Kanokogi, the mother of women's judo

Transcript

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A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

It's time for StoryCorps and a look at an Olympic pioneer in women's judo. It's a sport that wasn't allowed at the Olympics until 1988 when martial arts champion Rusty Kanokogi threatened to sue. She became known as the mother of women's judo and coached her student, Eve Aronoff-Trivella, on the first U.S. team. Eve came to StoryCorps with Rusty's daughter, Jean Kanokogi.

JEAN KANOKOGI: My mom was 5'9. Her legs were built like cinder blocks and her voice would wrap all around you. It was booming. And there were no excuses that she would accept, but she was constantly being told no. Her first judo tournament was in 1959. It was the YMCA judo championships in Utica, N.Y. Women weren't allowed to compete back then, so she went with the men that she was training with just to warm up with them. Then she heard a snap and a loud yell across the map. It was one of her teammates.

Her coach said, Rusty, I need you to take the place of this teammate. He can't compete. But don't let anybody see that you're a woman. Just make it a tie. She was very androgynous-looking, so nobody really knew the difference. She bows in with her opponent. She throws this big guy and wins her judo match. As she's walking out of the judo venue with her gold medal, the tournament director comes up to her and says, are you a girl? I need that metal back, otherwise your team will forfeit their first-place win. So she decided to take that metal from around her neck, and she told me that she felt this anger that she never felt before. She didn't believe that any woman deserved to have that feeling because they wanted to compete.

EVE ARONOFF-TRIVELLA: The first time I saw your mom, I was at a judo training camp, and I saw this redheaded woman who wreaked power. And I said, who is that woman? And my friend said, that's Rusty Kanokogi, and she's probably the strongest woman you'll ever meet.

KANOKOGI: You fueled her because she wanted you to have that chance. She wanted you to walk in next to her at the '88 Games.

ARONOFF-TRIVELLA: I remember that moment. You wait a while before you walk into the Olympic stadium. The tunnel is dark and you go to the end. You just hear all the screaming and yelling, and they have the American flag up. And she stood there, chest out, head up, beaming with glory. She did it, she did it.

KANOKOGI: I asked her, did you ever feel cheated for not having your shot at the Olympics? And of course, she said, I would have won.

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MARTÍNEZ: That was Jean Kanokogi and Eve Aronoff-Trivella. Rusty Kanokogi died in 2009, a few months after the YMCA awarded her a gold medal for lifetime achievement. You can hear more on the StoryCorps podcast at npr.org.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.